Excuses only make the mistake worse

Excuses -- the stuff of everyday life. When it happens in the air, the country watches. What about when it happens at work and it's your excuse?

Did you race to the office this morning, arriving few minutes late and blame it on the traffic -- when in truth you started so late you counted on light traffic to help you make an on-time arrival?

When your lack of tact causes others to bristle do you explain, "I call it like I see it," indirectly blaming others for getting their feelings hurt when you deliver your view of truth with a sledgehammer?

Are you the first to complain when year-end bonuses get cut yet the last to curb your habit of taking work-time breaks to surf the Internet -- because after all, your productivity lapses seem only a drop in the bucket of declining company revenue?

Have you joined the multitude that trots out excuses so often they no longer hear them as excuses? Isn't it time we all took the accountability pledge?

Here's what you gain:

Personal power. When you decide you hold the prime responsibility for whatever happens, it frees you. When you think, "I did my best but ran out of time," "I could have done better if others had supported me" or "When he pushed my buttons, I exploded," you declare yourself the victim of circumstances of others.

When you instead say "I should have started earlier," "I have a lot to learn here" or "No matter who pushes my buttons, I'm responsible for my own reactions," you regain ownership of your life and the situations in which you find yourself.

Respect. Whom do you respect more, those who try to cover up their mistakes or those who admit they blew it? When you claim responsibility, you gain everyone's respect.

Forward movement. Excuses stop you in your tracks.

"I didn't mean it, she took it wrong" leaves you nowhere to go; there will be more individuals who take you wrong in the future. "I need to learn to express my views more diplomatically" gives you a game plan.

"It's just the way I am" announces you won't be anything more. "I need to change" steps you forward into the future.

Would you like to start uprooting excuse behavior in your life?

These four strategies help:

• Own up, at least to yourself, every time you do something wrong.

• If you catch yourself starting to excuse something away, stop yourself mid-track and instead say, "Here's what I could have done better."

• In any situation in which you want to blame your behavior or situation on someone else, realize that blame simply compounds an excuse, making it messier. Focus 100 percent of your improvement-oriented thoughts on yourself.

• Finally, don't do the wrong thing in the first place. Excuses start when you cut yourself slack. Those pilots weren't supposed to have their laptops in the cockpit.

Lynne Curry is a local management trainer, consultant and syndicated columnist. Her advice and opinion column appears every other Monday. Questions for her column may be faxed to her at 258-2157 or mailed to her c/o Anchorage Daily News, P.O. Box 149001, Anchorage 99514-9001. Her e-mail address is lynne@thegrowthcompany.com.